Arabs Skirmishing in the Mountains (1863)

Eugène Delacroix: Arabs Skirmishing in the Mountains

Eugène Delacroix, France’s leading romantic painter of the first half of the 19th century, advocated the opposite aesthetic of his contemporary, Jean–Auguste–Dominique Ingres. In contrast to Ingres' controlled images that are characterized by his interests in linear purity and a finished surface, Delacroix championed the primacy of color and quick execution as expressive of the artist's imagination.

The Arabs Skirmishing in the Mountains was painted a few months before the artist's death. It harks back to Delacroix’s first and only visit to North Africa in 1832, more than 30 years before this picture was painted, an excursion that made a deep impression on him. The figures and horses are placed on a diagonal that traverses the lower right foreground plane. The action then shifts to the middle ground as a horse and rider charge towards battling Arabs in the center. The background abruptly rises into a craggy landscape, with a fortified castle and a line of mountains blending with the clouds.

The fluidity of Delacroix's brushstroke animates the composition, heightening the violence of the scene and the moment when the rider is thrown off his horse. The brilliant use of red, blue, and white forces the eye to stop at each grouping, accenting the rhythm of the battle itself. Delacroix has created a fictive battle, his work not only recalling an earlier personal experience but also stimulating the imagination of his viewers. [National Gallery of Art]

The Death of Lara (1858)

Eugène Delacroix: The Death of Lara

The Good Samaritan (ca. 1850)

Eugène Delacroix: The Good Samaritan

A mere forty years after this painting was done, Van Gogh paid homage to it with a copy in his own inimitable style:

A Vase of Flowers on a Console (1848-49)

Eugène Delacroix: A Vase of Flowers on a Console

The Abduction of Rebecca (1846)

Eugène Delacroix: The Abduction of Rebecca

This is not the first time a painting on this subject has been featured on this blog.

The Sultan of Morocco and his Entourage (1845)

Eugène Delacroix: The Sultan of Morocco and his Entourage

The Sultan of Morocco and his Entourage was intended to immortalize the Comte de Mornay's diplomatic mission, his successful meeting with the Sultan. In fact, Delacroix scorned the opportunity to commemorate an event doomed to oblivion. Instead, he concentrated on creating a spectacular open-air scene in bright light, with vivid colors and monumental protagonists. Exemplifying his orientalist vein, it also exhibits the full wealth of his technical mastery.

A detailed analysis of the painting and the cultural and political milieu in which is was produced is online here.

Last Words of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (1844)

Eugène Delacroix: Last Words of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius

This painting depicts the last hours of the life of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, as Delacroix admired the Stoics and particularly Marcus Aurelius. The character is represented in the center of the painting as an old, sick man who grabs the arm of a young man dressed in red, namely his son Commodus (Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus). Commodus seems not to pay attention to what his father wants him to say and has a haughty look. Around them, Marcus Aurelius' philosopher friends who are present around the bed are portrayed as sad men dressed in black.

Thus, the painting represents the end of the Roman Empire. Delacroix, who was fascinated by the red color after his travel to North Africa in 1832, draws the viewer's attention to Commodus by garbing him in bright red. It appears that the painting has no moral aspect, as the message that Delacroix wanted to convey in this work remains unknown. [Wikipedia]

A Jewish Wedding in Morocco (1841)

Eugène Delacroix: A Jewish Wedding in Morocco

As a musician I used to play for weddings periodically. I can tell you that Jewish weddings were always the most fun - people really enjoyed themselves.

Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard (1839)

Eugène Delacroix: Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard

Columbus and His Son at La Rábida (1838)

Eugène Delacroix: Columbus and His Son at La Rábida

The hero, the individual of talent and passion who follows a difficult, solitary path to greatness, was central to romanticism. Here is Columbus at the final moment of frustration before his ultimate triumph. Almost penniless, he and his son have sought shelter in the monastery of La Rábida, where, according to legendary accounts, word of the fateful meeting with Queen Isabella would soon arrive.

Calm rectangular forms dominate: the juncture of walls and ceiling, the parade of dark canvases down the hall, the large map that Columbus contemplates. The figure groups have solid geometrical form. Even the colors are quiet: the monks' habits, the soft light and brown shadows - only the plume of Columbus' hat, which points to him as protagonist, interrupts this muted range. Neither the tone nor composition matches our image of Delacroix as the champion of color and exuberant form. More typical of his work, for example, are the bright color accents and dynamic zigzagging energy of Arabs Skirmishing. Columbus and His Son is one of a pair - the second painting (Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio), much richer in color and effect, shows the explorer returning in triumph - and it seems likely that Delacroix wanted to underscore radically opposed circumstances by corresponding differences in feel. [National Gallery of Art]

Women of Algiers in their Apartment (1834)

Eugène Delacroix: Women of Algiers in their Apartment

This painting is Delacroix's first foray into Orientalism; it resulted from his trip to North Africa in 1832 - a trip which clearly influenced the remainder of his artistic career.

More about this painting can be found at Wikipedia and Artble.

Flowers (1833)

Eugène Delacroix: Flowers

This still life by Delacroix clearly anticipates Impressionism.

Liberty Leading the People (1830)

Eugène Delacroix: Liberty Leading the People

Here, of course, is one of the most iconic images in all of 19th century French art. It commemorates the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled King Charles X of France. A woman personifying Liberty leads the people forward over the bodies of the fallen, holding the flag of the French Revolution – the tricolor flag which is still France's flag today – in one hand and brandishing a bayonetted musket with the other. The figure of Liberty is also viewed as a symbol of France and the French Republic known as Marianne.

Some links with more analysis of this work:

Cry Freedom (The Guardian)

Artble

SmartHistory (video)

A Corner of the Studio (ca. 1830)

Eugène Delacroix: A Corner of the Studio

Here's an intimate interior from Delacroix.

The Assassination of the Bishop of Liege (1829)

Eugène Delacroix: The Assassination of the Bishop of Liege

A variety of Romantic interests were again synthesized in The Murder of the Bishop of Liège (1829). It also borrowed from a literary source, this time [Sir Walter] Scott, and depicts a scene from the Middle Ages, that of the murder of Louis de Bourbon, Bishop of Liège amidst an orgy sponsored by his captor, William de la Marck. Set in an immense vaulted interior which Delacroix based on sketches of the Palais de Justice in Rouen and Westminster Hall, the drama plays out in chiaroscuro, organized around a brilliantly lit stretch of tablecloth. In 1855, a critic described the painting's vibrant handling as "Less finished than a painting, more finished than a sketch, The Murder of the Bishop of Liège was left by the painter at that supreme moment when one more stroke of the brush would have ruined everything." (Jobert, Barthélémy, Delacroix, p. 116-18. Princeton University Press, 1997) [Wikipedia]

Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi (1827)

Eugène Delacroix: Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi

The Greek war of independence from Turkish rule was a cause célèbre of European poets and artists. Lord Byron, in particular, did much to popularize the Greek cause. With this painting, Delacroix laid a Romantic stamp on the depiction of a tragic event (the townspeople of Missolonghi destroyed their city rather than surrender it to the Turks) which came to be an allegory of the entire struggle.

Woman Caressing a Parrot (1827)

Eugène Delacroix: Woman Caressing a Parrot

There appears to be something of a tradition of nude or scantily clad women painted with parrots. It began in the Baroque (example: Rosalba Carrera) but really flowered in the 19th century with Delacroix and many later examples.

These are innocent parrots but later representations of the bird are fraught with erotic meaning. During the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the parrot – having once symbolised Eve – became instead an image of sexual lust and longing. Wistful women alone in their boudoirs contemplate their pet parrots as they dream of their distant lovers. The most famous examples of the genre, by Manet, by Courbet, by Renoir, are too precious to have been sought as loans by the Barber Institute. But the exhibition does include two wonderful lesser known examples: A Woman in a Red Jacket Feeding a Parrot, by the seventeenth-century painter from Leiden, Frans van Mieris the Elder; and Giambattista Tiepolo’s smouldering Young Woman with a Macaw, a capriccio executed by the greatest Venetian painter of the eighteenth century for Empress Elisabeth Petrovna of Russia. A blushing young lady, in decolletage so low-cut as to reveal her right breast, stares into space. The parrot she caresses looks out at the spectator with a sharp, proprietorial gaze. [Andrew Graham-Dixon]

The Death of Sardanapalus (1827)

Eugène Delacroix: The Death of Sardanapalus

The Death of Sardanapalus is based on the tale of Sardanapalus, the last king of Assyria, from the historical library of Diodorus Siculus, the ancient Greek historian, and is a work of the era of Romanticism. This painting uses rich, vivid and warm colors, and broad brushstrokes. It was inspired by Lord Byron's play Sardanapalus (1821), and in turn inspired a cantata by Hector Berlioz, Sardanapale (1830), and also Franz Liszt's opera, Sardanapale (1845–52, unfinished). [Wikipedia]

For much more about this painting, see the Louvre web site.

The Massacre at Chios (1824)

Eugène Delacroix: The Massacre at Chios

The Massacre at Chios (French: Scène des massacres de Scio) is the second major oil painting by Delacroix. The work is more than four meters tall, and shows some of the horror of the wartime destruction visited on the Island of Chios. A frieze-like display of suffering characters, military might, ornate and colourful costumes, terror, disease and death is shown in front of a scene of widespread desolation.

Unusually for a painting of civil ruin during this period, The Massacre at Chios has no heroic figure to counterbalance the crushed victims, and there is little to suggest hope among the ruin and despair. The vigor with which the aggressor is painted, contrasted with the dismal rendition of the victims has drawn comment since the work was first hung, and some critics have charged that Delacroix might have tried to show some sympathy with the brutal occupiers. The painting was completed and displayed at the Salon of 1824 and presently hangs at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. [Wikipedia]

Orphan Girl at the Cemetery (ca. 1824)

Eugène Delacroix: Orphan Girl at the Cemetery

This painting, an early work by Delacroix, was long thought to be a preparatory piece for the Massacre at Chios. Even before reading the title, it is clear that an air of sadness emanates from the picture.
   Note how clear and precise the outlines are. The young girl is sharply defined against the less precise background of the sky and the deserted cemetery. Note how Delacroix has subtly conveyed signs of the girl’s grief – the tears welling up in her dark-ringed eyes, the half-open mouth, the way her gown has slipped off her shoulder, her hand lying dully on her thigh. Observe the play of shadows on her nape and neck and the darker shade to the right of the figure. The cold, dull colors of her clothing and the landscape echo the overall atmosphere of despair.
   Take a close look at the beautifully delicate lines of the girl’s face and neck and the light touch of fabric which heighten the impression of solitude.
   What can the orphan be gazing at, beyond the frame? [Louvre]